Sussex and family history site

You can find old newspapers in Records Offices and Archives, local library, or the local studies centre, and occasionally at a local museum.

Some may have the copies or the newspapers themselves but all will have knowledge of where the local newspapers are kept. They can point you in the right direction.

There are sometimes original copies but mainly found on microfiche. Much depends on the condition of the original paper.

Local and national newspapers often have their own archives where they store original copies of old publications. If you approach the publishers they should be able to advise where their archives are located and what access there is to them.

Some old newspapers are sold as re-prints and some companies offer them as gift editions but these are limited in year and newspaper.

The British Library has a specialist newspaper library that is useful for identifying local newspapers. This is at Colindale in London and it is a really interesting place to visit. Many of the very old newspapers are still there in hard copy and they are brought into the reading room and put on large stands for reading.

The library has an online catalogue that lists all its holdings and this tells you the years of all newspapers ever published, that are still in existence in the UK today.

The British Library holds 14 million books, 920,000 journal and newspaper titles,